Moving "Home" 0,0 on my BT48

[ghostcreek]

Hello, could anyone tell me how to move the 0,0 location (X&Y)on my BT48? I want it to be in the lower left hand corner as I face the "front" of the machine. Thanks in advance for any help.
Love my BT48

[knight_toolworks]

you can do it but it may make things harder since your going against the standard. it means you have to reverse everything.

[Brady Watson]

Just swap out the X & Y motor wires for each other in the control box. It doesn't matter if it is a Standard or Alpha machine. Then go into SB3 & move the tool around using the arrow keys. Chances are either the X or Y OR BOTH will be moving in the opposite direction than it should. In that case, type in VU, and on the axis that is reversed, put a (-) negative sign in front of the unit value number. Say OK & k again to see if the tool is going in the right direction. If it is, that's all there is to it.

Your homing routine (C3) file will need to be modified to work with the newly configured setup. The easiest way to do this would be to swap out the X and Y input wires in the control box and then run the 'ShopBot Setup' virtual tool in SB3 to get them correctly set, just like you did when you 1st setup your tool.

If you use the preview screen, in Preview mode, then you'll have to change the definition of how the tool is setup so that the X looks like 48" in preview instead of 24" - this is more of a luxury than anything else since as long as file limit checking is off, you won't have any problems, it just won't look like your new configuration when you run in preview - no big deal.

Other than this, everything else should function exactly as you expect without issue. I also swapped axes on my BT48 since I have no immediate plans to upgrade to a longer powerstick. I have a 5X16' Alpha tool...so I don't need the longer capacity.

-B

[ghostcreek]

Thanks for the input, after wading through the manual, I can see what you mean. I don't get the future problem if I add a power stick to my BT48 in the future?

Happy Holidays to all

[Brady Watson]

No...just reverse the process you are doing now & you're back to it's original orientation...OR just keep it as is & make the Y axis the long axis with the powerstick. It makes no difference in the long run.

-B

[dana_swift]

Michael, I prefer the lower left corner for my 0,0. With my alpha I had to use the following commands to change:

VI exchange X and Y drivers
VU set -2979.38053 for both X and Y

Then next problem is the C1 "seek home" program is not set up to detect the correct limit switches. I have made a modified version that reads the driver assignments and uses the correct limit switch for each axis, so you can freely switch the X and Y back if that is desirable and my routine works either way. I sent this routine to shopbot so they could just include it for folks like yourself, although I suspect its not part of the standard distribution. If you need that version let me know, I will send it to you.

FYI, I cant imagine why they want the lower right corner to be 0,0. It makes no sense to me since on a buddy you are always seeing the table from the side that is open. Lower left just makes sense. When I use powersticks I just get longer Y axes..

D